1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording and/or reproducing apparatus for use in a hybrid type card-like information recording medium on the surface of which an IC chip and an optical information recording area and/or a magnetic information recording area are formed.
2) Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, an information industry has been remarkably developed, and the amount of information to be dealt with in such industry is increasing rapidly in proportion to the development of the industry.
A magnetic card, in which information is recorded and/or reproduced with the aid of magnetic stripe, has widely spread as a card-like information recording medium. Now, an IC card and an optical card, each of which has a great information capacity and a high portability, are suggested. The IC card comprises an IC chip, and information is recorded and/or reproduced in and/or from the IC chip with the aid of electric signals; on the other hand, the optical card comprises an optical information recording area thereon, and optical information is recorded and/or reproduced on and/or from the area with the aid of a laser beam.
Each of the card-like information recording media has good portability in addition to the following features. That is to say, the magnetic card can be manufactured at a low cost and information recorded thereon is rewritable, but the memory capacity is small; in the IC card, a high speed access is possible and transfer rate of data is high, but the cost for a unit memory capacity is high; and the optical card has a large memory capacity, i.e. several megabytes, but it is impossible to rewrite information recorded thereon.
Therefore, a hybrid type card, in which the above mentioned features of these card-like information recording media are mixed in order to compensate for each drawback of these media, is now suggested.
The information recording/reproducing apparatus for use in an optical card is, for instance, disclosed in Japanese Patent Preliminarily Laid-open Publication No. 2-144686. In the apparatus disclosed in this publication, an optical card is contained in a card container, so-called "shuttle" and the shuttle containing the optical card is relatively moved with respect to an optical head in a reciprocal manner to record and/or reproduce information on and/or from the optical card. However, when a user carries such an optical card, the card is usually stored in a purse or a pass case, so that the optical card is apt to become curved. Therefore, the shuttle is required to provide a function to correct the curved shape of the optical card. However, when the optical card is inserted in or removed from the shuttle, the function to correct the curved shape of the optical card serves as a resister to increase a load of a motor or to wear out the optical card. Therefore, it is required that such function should be releasable when the card is inserted in or removed from the shuttle.
In the case of the IC card, in order to record and/or reproduce information, a contact point (input and output terminal) formed on the IC card should be made to contact with a contact point formed in the apparatus. In Japanese Patent Preliminarily Laid-open Publication No. 64-76291, is disclosed an apparatus which has a function to contact the contact point of the IC card with the contact point of the apparatus. In the apparatus disclosed in this publication, it is arranged such that when the IC card is inserted in the apparatus a carriage comprising the apparatus-side contact point is moved to urge the apparatus-side contact point with the contacting point formed on the card; and when the IC card is removed from the apparatus, the carriage is moved to be separated from the card, so that the apparatus-side contact point is separated from the contact point on the card.
In case of the hybrid-type card, the information recording/reproducing apparatus therefor is required to provide a plurality of information recording/reproducing systems in accordance with the type of the recording media applied on the card, because different types of information recording/reproducing system are mixed on the hybrid-type card.
In Japanese Patent Preliminarily Laid-open Publication No. 64-59578, is disclosed an information recording/reproducing apparatus for use in a hybrid type information recording medium which has an optical information recording area and a magnetic information recording area.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a construction of the information recording/reproducing apparatus disclosed in the Publication No. 64-59578. The apparatus comprises a magnetic information recording/reproducing section 51 and an optical information recording/reproducing section 56. These sections 51 and 56 are arranged in X direction (card insertion direction); and the section 51 is arranged in a front side (left side in FIG. 1) and the section 56 in a back side (right side in FIG. 1). A card-like information recording medium having an optical information recording area and a magnetic information recording area is inserted into a slot 50. In case magnetic information is recorded/reproduced on/from a magnetic stripe formed on the card-like information recording medium, information is recorded/reproduced in the magnetic information recording/reproducing section 51. The section 51 comprises upper rollers 52 and lower rollers 53 between which the magnetic card is held and transported; a magnetic head 54 by which information is recorded and/or reproduced on and/or from the magnetic stripe; and a motor 55 for rotating the lower roller 53 to transport the card.
On the other hand, in case optical information is recorded/reproduced on/from the optical information recording area of the card-like information recording medium, recording and/or reproduction of information is performed in the optical information recording/reproducing section 56. The section 56 comprises an optical head 57 by which optical information is recorded and/or reproduced on and/or from the optical information recording area, a shuttle 58 for containing the optical card, a shuttle moving device comprising a belt 59 for holding the shuttle 58 thereon a pulleys 60 over which the belt 59 is spread, and a motor 61 for rotating the pulleys 60, to relatively move the shuttle 58 with respect to the optical head 57.
However, in the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Preliminarily Laid-open Publication No. 64-59578, for instance, when optical information is recorded/reproduced first and then magnetic information is recorded/reproduced, the hybrid card should be sent into the shuttle 58 firstly; and after information is recorded/reproduced on/from the optical information recording area by relative movement of the shuttle 58 with respect to the optical head 57, the shuttle 58 holding the card should be returned back to the connecting portion of the optical information recording area 56 and the magnetic information recording area 51, and then the hybrid card is returned back to the position under the magnetic head 54. Therefore, it is not possible to freely access both recording portions 51 and 56 of the apparatus. Further, since there are arranged the optical information recording area and the magnetic information recording area in an almost completely separated manner, the apparatus as a whole becomes large in size.
In order to make the size of the apparatus small, it is considered to arrange the apparatuses for the different type recording/reproducing systems at almost the same position. For instance, a combination of the apparatuses disclosed in the Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication No. 64-76291 and No. 2-144686 can be considered for use in the hybrid type card having an IC chip and an optical information recording area. That is to say, an apparatus is suggested that the carriage having a terminal for making a contact with the IC chip formed on the card is arranged above the shuttle containing the card therein. However, in this case, when recording/reproducing information in the IC chip, the shuttle should be driven to a predetermined position and then the carriage or the card per se should be moved in order to contact the terminal with the IC chip.
However, in such construction, it is impossible to freely access to information recorded both on the optical information recording area and in the IC chip with a high speed. Further, since the carriage is arranged to be moved in upper and lower directions to urge the terminal of IC chip against the terminal of the carriage to release their contact, and since the correction mechanism for correcting the curve of the card should be arranged separately from the moving mechanism for separating the terminal of the IC chip from the terminal of the carriage, the apparatus becomes large in size, heavy in weight and high in cost, and the reliability of the apparatus becomes low. Furthermore, there is a problem that the optical information recording area is obliged to be made small in order to prevent that the optical system of the optical head is made contact with the carriage.